This project is exploring the geographical experience (defined as "the individual's involvement within the spaces and places of his or her life") of 12 elderly residents of a declining Appalachian community. Measures of four modalities of geographical experience -- action, orientation, feeling and fantasy -- are being developed and tested. The intention is to explore the interrelationships among these dimensions as they express the older person's adjustment to, and means of coping with environmental change. The research seeks to provide deeper understanding of the meshing of time and space in the experience of the contemporary environment and to develop grounded theory concerning the manner in which elderly people's experience of their environmental setting changes as they grow older. The research is primarily ethnographic and inductive. Multiple minimally structured tape recorded interviews have been completed and detailed personal histories traced. In addition, preliminary structured interviews, time/space diaries, and "mental mapping" exercises have been conducted. This data is currently being analyzed in order to refine the measurement procedures prior to a final field phase. Data analysis methods include content analysis and the development of descriptive and cartographic profiles to portray the various dimensions of geographical experience and illustrate an emergent theoretical perspective.